Creating a calendar monthly billing contract template

Overview

A billing contract template in Found defines how invoices are generated for a group of bookings — how often invoices go out, what period each invoice covers, how rates are entered, and how the invoice itself is structured. A calendar monthly template bills on a fixed day of each calendar month (e.g. the 1st of every month), with each billing period covering one calendar month.

Once a template is published, it can be subscribed to by funders attached to bookings, and Found will then generate invoices automatically according to the template's calendar.

Where to find it

Templates live under Operations → Billing contract templates. The page has three tabs:

• Individual — templates used by individual funders (e.g. self-funders, family contacts)

• Organisation — templates used by organisation funders (e.g. local authorities, NHS bodies)

• Custom — templates with a custom configuration

To start a new template, open the relevant tab and use the create action at the top of the page.

How to create a calendar monthly template

The template builder is a step-by-step (accordion) form. The steps that matter for calendar monthly billing are:

1. Billing calendar step

This is where the calendar monthly behaviour is configured.

Invoice generation

• How often do you invoice? — select Monthly.

• Which day of the month? — pick a day from 1–31. If you choose 29, 30 or 31, Found will show a warning: in months where that day doesn't exist, the contract will run on the last day of the month instead.

• Should invoices be offset? — optional. Turn on if you want invoices to be generated a number of days before the chosen day of the month.

• When should the first invoice be generated? — pick the start date for the first invoice run.

Billing period

• Same as billing frequency — if enabled, Found mirrors the invoice generation settings into the billing period (so a monthly invoice on the 1st gives you a billing period that also starts on the 1st). For a standard calendar monthly template, leave this on.

• If you want to set the period separately, choose Calendar monthly as the billing period type, pick the day of the month the period should start on, and the first billing period start date.

Contribution unit

• Choose the unit that rates will be entered in: Weekly, Annual, or Daily. This is the unit you'll type rates against when adding contributions — Found will convert them to the calendar monthly charge for you.

The step preview shows a summary including the first billing period end date and a plain-English description of when invoices are generated relative to the billing period (in advance, mid-period, or in arrears).

2. Remaining steps

The other steps in the builder cover invoice setup (structure, issue date, due date, payment method, service user identification, invoice IDs) and billing rules (calculation basis, after-death and offsite handling, closure and cancellation credit triggers). Complete these to finish the template.

How it works

Once published, the template becomes available for subscription. When a funder on a booking subscribes to it:

• Found pre-computes the billing periods for the subscription's lifetime, each one covering a calendar month starting on the day you chose.

• On each invoice generation date, a background job picks up the subscription, calculates the care fees for the period (including any contributions, adjustments, billable extras, and discounts), and issues an invoice.

• Calendar monthly periods use the actual number of days in each month, so February will bill fewer days than March. If you want every month to bill the same amount regardless of day count, use Fixed monthly instead.

• Issued invoices are immutable — any retroactive change (a rate backdate, end-date shorten, closure, etc.) is captured as a pending adjustment and applied to the next invoice.